My local track now allows a transmission brake in the "No Box" or footbrake class. I don't have one and wonder if I might be at some sort of disadvantage. What advantage might I have with one or without one?
Thanks for any input!

Some people can be more consistent launching with their thumb than their foot.

If you have a good rhythm with your foot and can cut good lights, then I don't see a big different. You should be a little quicker with a trans brake, but as long as you can run the number and cut a light it doesn't really matter if you are running 10s or 14s.

As mentioned there are several things that can determine weather you are better off. If you have a high stall convertor & a fairly high RPM power band a trans brake will probably help you be more consistant. If you are running on a 5 tenths full tree you can get yourself in trouble with heat from the convertor if you stall it too soon. Tempurture can rise up to 100* per second from matting the throttle with the trans brake on so you have to know when go down on the gas or you will be going through convertors. Some advantages are that you can adjust the "Button" so you get a better Light & you don't have to hold or release the brake after you are staged. With the car I'm running now it is just about impossible to not have a trans brake, but it is an Index (4 tenths Pro tree) & not a Bracket. Some of the lower Brackets can use a Micro Loc on the front wheels & they are just as well off as a Trans Brake with out the stress on the convertor. If you have a "Practice Tree" or "On Line App" it is similar to using a Trans Brake button & that is an advantage also.

Thanks for your input. I don't think I'd trust the front brakes only to hold the car staged. I'd be using a "two step" module so the converter wouldn't be under that much stress. The RPM would stay around 2,500 which is where I hold things with my footbrake now.

My class is pretty tight ET wise so I would have very few times where there was a large number of seconds to be sitting on the converter.

It's an expensive gamble to see if I can learn to leave with a finger or thumb as apposed to just plain stomping on the gas when the time is right.

My track does the same thing. I wonder if they will change the name from "footbrake" to "transbrake"? Even though it's still no box. I have beaten numberous cars with trans brakes footbraking my car. Still sucks that they change the rules. It's called footbrake for a REASON.

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